Being the only girl on her high school football team is no sweat for this London, Ont., teen
'I'm here to play the sport, so that's what I'm going to do,' says 14-year-old Caitlin Wasiukow
For Caitlin Wasiukow, 14, it's simple. If a boy can play and excel at a sport, so can a girl.
And when the London, Ont. student joined Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School's boys tackle football team, playing alongside teammates who are much faster and bigger in size, it was no big deal.
"There's a lot of stigma around it because people think girls aren't as skilled, or strong, or fast enough, but I disagree," Wasiukow said.
Wasiukow's interest in football peaked while attending her older brother's games where she first saw a girl on one of the teams.
"I didn't know girls were allowed to play and I kind of thought about playing before, so finding that out made me feel like I wanted to do this," she said.
She first played as a linebacker with the Ontario Women's Football League (OWFL) this summer and her team, the London Junior Mustangs, won a provincial championship.
Although she could've continued with the girls team, Wasiukow wanted to try something different, so she decided to play as a defensive back on the boys team, her mom Sarah said.
WATCH | Cailtin Wasiukow on her love for tackle football:
"She wanted the high school football experience and it's different because they get pep rallies, they get to wear the jersey on game days. It's just an experience in it of itself," said Sarah.
But Wasiukow admitted it hasn't been easy. She often gets demeaning comments from boys on other teams for being a girl playing a traditionally male sport, but support from her male teammates definitely helps, she said.
"Sometimes they say things like 'Girls shouldn't be playing football.' They think it's weird and some people look disgusted when they see me, but that doesn't really bother me," she said.
"Girls hit just as hard, they put the work in the same way, and we won our provincial championship so that shows girls can do it too," Wasiukow said.
Hearing stories about this type of pushback is nothing new for Mark Ouellet, co-chair of OWFL. It's part of why he started the brand new league this year, drawing hundreds of high school girls across the province to play club-based football.
Fraternity in sport makes it hard to fit in: OWFL
It's easy for male and female players to mix in with each other at a younger age, but as they get older, and differences in size and physical strength become more visible, it gets harder for girls to compete and fit in with the boys, Ouellet said.
But another reason for the divide, according to Ouellet, is a fraternity that can develop when a cohort of players are introduced to a sport at a young age.
"Whenever there's a group of men together, sometimes a brotherhood develops. If they start playing at age five or seven, by the time they're teenagers, they've been together for many years," he said.
"There's a lot of attachment that happens and early on, the girls can be a part of that but as they become young women that sort of strays."
Ouellet encourages girls interested in sports to seek out women's teams and find like-minded people so they know they have an equal chance at succeeding, he said.
But Wasiukow has no plans of stopping football, and she hopes to join the rugby team next spring, she said.
"I'm here to play the sport, that's what I want to do, so that's what I'm going to do."
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